A Great Trip That Ended With a Gunman, a Dripping Baby, and a Dozen Donuts

We had just gotten back from a trip. I helped my husband carry all of our luggage into the house for it to then explode along with the kids two feet from the front door. I got the baby straight upstairs for a bath.

While I’m running the water for the bath and can hear nothing else but water filling a bathtub there are gunshots outside. Frank hears the shots fired and his natural reaction is to walk outside. Picturing our roles reversed I would have double locked the doors and have been moving furniture in front of the door for good measure, but chalk it up to male vs. female emergency response triggers I guess. ANYWAY, so Frank is a walking back into the house and all of a sudden a barefoot man comes running at him yelling. Frank moves back quickly and inside the metal security screen door while the man is yelling at Frank to help him.

Gunman: “Help me, help me, they shot my friend and they are after me! Let me in so I can hide!”

Frank: “What? I can’t help you! You might have a gun!?!”

Gunman: “I do have a gun!” (Gunman then holds up his pistol to show Frank). “I’ll leave the gun outside!” (Gunman then tosses gun into the flowerpot by our front door). “Please, please, let me in. I think they shot my friend! I think my friend is dead!”

Frank: “OK but we are calling the police.”

Gunman: “Yes, yes, please call the police!”

So back upstairs I have not finished running the water yet but my oldest kid comes in and screams at me that “Dad just let a guy with a gun in our house Mom!” Which of course causes me to triple take my listening comprehension skills. My quick breath panic mode takes over as I carry the dripping baby to the top of the stairs to find my two sons huddled together noticeably shaking.

My ears are straining to hear what Frank and the definite voice of a stranger are saying to each other. Are they angry? Are they struggling? Should I lock the kids in my bedroom and use the landline to call the cops? Is my portable house phone charged? WHO AM I KIDDING ITS NEVER CHARGED! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO? WHERE DID I PUT MY CELL PHONE? IS IT DOWNSTAIRS WITH THE GUY WITH A GUN?  Then I have two seconds of super slow motion thinking and all my questions are answered, not by Frank but by a quiet calm to my heart and clear understanding.

No, Frank is not arguing with the stranger. No, we are not in danger. Frank is helping someone who needed help. We are safe. I knew. I was given a reassurance by the Comforter just as Frank was when he let that man in our house (we would soon discuss together later that night) that we were in no danger.

My next step was to make sure there wasn’t anything I needed to do to help Frank and then to get my exhausted children to bed. I went downstairs to get the babies bottle ready for her. I walked passed the pacing frantic man who said, “I’m really sorry about this mam.” I wasn’t sure what to say back so I asked him if he wanted water or a donut (of course we had donuts we just got back from a trip of course we picked up a dozen donuts on the way home from the airport – what kind of parents do you think we are? The kind who don’t feed their kids donuts – WRONG).

The stranger assured me he didn’t want either of those things right before Frank passed him the phone to begin talking to the police.

I went back upstairs to find all three of my big kids (the baby was in my arms still) huddled on the stairs with huge eyes and tears streaming. I guaranteed them that everything was going to be fine and that they needed to proceed getting ready for bed like normal. They then assured me that there was no way that they would take a shower without me standing in the bathroom with them while there was some nut downstairs with a gun by the front door. This seemed a fair enough request so I sat in the doorway of the bathroom feeding the baby her bottle while each of my three kids progressively took showers.

By the time they were done so was the phone call with the police. Also the stranger with a gun by the front door had finished his phone call on Frank’s phone and made several calls on his own phone then stood up and announced that he guessed “the coast is clear.” He began to walk away from our house and then turned back and said, “woops almost forgot this” and reached down into the flower pot to get his gun.

Frank then utilized all the locking apparatuses on our doors and joined us upstairs to get the kids all bedded and calmed down from the crazy turn of end-of-travel events.

As Frank and I went over and over the nights details with each other that night and since, we both keep coming back to the fact that we are so grateful for the Holy Ghost that helped both of us know what to do in such chaotic moments. “As we strive to stay on the path that leads to eternal life, the Holy Ghost can guide us in our decisions and protect us from physical and spiritual danger” – (link to quote and more explanation of the Holy Ghost here). I’m grateful for the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

We haven’t yet taken the advice of some friends which is for me to make a decorative sign to hang above the flower pot which reads, “drop firearms here,” but maybe we will eventually.